The present invention generally relates to voice over IP communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a routing engine to assist in the routing of voice over IP communications from a source gateway to a destination gateway.
As an alternative to traditional switched circuit networks, telecommunications service providers have discovered that voice telephone calls may be routed over IP networks. Due to the fact that the Internet is not presently subject to the same international regulations as are traditional telephone networks, routing telephone calls over the Internet tends to be less expensive. Additionally, an IP routed voice telephone call requires much less bandwidth, and thus less cost, than a voice telephone call placed over a traditional telephone network. Further, IP technology advances and is entered into the marketplace at a much faster rate than traditional telecom technology. Thus, in order to be competitive, telecommunications service providers have begun to use IP routing as a way to offer customers access to the latest technological improvements.
Presently, however, there is no centralized system for routing voice telephone calls over an IP network. Each operator of a gateway is responsible for determining the routes for its own outgoing calls. Typically, gateway operators rely on traditional IP routing algorithms, which are designed to handle routing of computer generated data packets. Traditional IP routing algorithms attempt to strike a balance between the concerns of minimum delay and maximum reliability. Thus, using traditional IP routing algorithms, a voice telephone call will be routed to any destination gateway that happens to satisfy a set of predetermined shortest path and acceptable data loss parameters.
The routing of voice telephone calls, however, involves a significant concern that is not shared by traditional IP routing algorithms. This additional concern is the monetary cost of routing a voice call to a particular destination gateway. As in traditional switched circuit networks, Internet telephony gateways impose fees for the service of terminating a voice call. Traditional IP routing algorithms are not able to detect and compare the varying price schedules that may be imposed by various Internet telephony gateways. Thus, source gateways are not able to discriminate between destination gateways based on monetary costs.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for voice over IP routing that is able to balance financial concerns with concerns for minimum delay and maximum reliability.
There also remains a need in the art for a centralized system for assisting gateway operators with routing decisions.
The present invention relates to a routing engine connected to an IP network, such as the Internet, that provides gateways with assistance in the routing and billing of voice over IP transactions. The novel routing engine provides a source gateway with a prioritized list of destination gateways that are eligible to terminate a voice telephone call. The routing engine locates eligible destination gateways by gathering and matching information relating to xe2x80x9cpreferencesxe2x80x9d from various gateway operators. For a source gateway, preferences may be the maximum price that will be paid for a given call, the maximum delay that will be tolerated for the call and the maximum autonomous system hop count that will be tolerated. For a destination gateway operator, the most relevant preference is the price charged for access to the destination gateway.
Gateway operators may also designate xe2x80x9cpreference criteria,xe2x80x9d which define the circumstances in which a given set of preferences are to apply. Preference criteria may relate to the identification of a particular gateway, a particular called number prefix, a particular time of day and/ or day of the week. Thus, for example, a source gateway operator may specify that all calls place from a particular source gateway will only tolerate a stated amount of delay and will only incur a set amount of costs. Also, a destination gateway operator may specify that a certain price will be charged for access to a certain gateway at a certain time of day, or for calls placed to a specific geographic region, or even for calls placed to a specific telephone number. Routing, and thus billing, flexibility is virtually limitless due to the designation of preferences and preference criteria.
Gateway operators designate preferences and preference criteria through a web-site that is related to the routing engine, or through other electronic transfer means. The preferences and preference criteria are then transferred to a centralized database that is accessible to all routing engines that may be distributed around an IP network. Geographically distributed routing engines are desirable in order to handle requests for routing assistance from geographically diverse gateways. Additionally, at a given location, a scalable number of routing engines may be coupled together, so as to process a multitude of routing requests with speed and efficiency.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide routing that is able to account for financial concerns as well as signal delay and quality of communications service. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a centralized service point to assist gateways in the process of making voice over IP routing decisions.
These and yet other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from reading the following specification, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.